tia -

my install so far has (loosely) gone like this:

installed 10.0 (on a similar laptop that had a cdrom) using the minimum required packages from software sets A & N - would have used the full install as i normally do but the libretto does not have very much disk space (1.6GB total).

got the system booted up on the libretto i have a generic pcmcia nic - my networks router which handles dhcp did not assign an address, there was an entry about a generic ne2000 driver being loaded with it's memory and irq address at the end of dmesg, but as of now, dmesg no longer reports it (shrug)...

i re-ran netconfig, no network, tried figuring out how to load the generic ne2000 module, no network, i must be missing something really simple... i also followed the advice I have seen that seemed similar after having searched through this and a bunch of other forums all morning, including removing the entry for the wrong nic that was created during setup from /etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice, but no network yet.

my next question after i get on the network: is it advisable for me to just continue along normal installation techniques, like swaret updates etc..?

again, thanks everyone for your time. -gabe

Well, you might want to check whether you got hotplug and pcmcia packages installed. Those will be of great help in setting up your pcmcia card.

With pcmcia you don't need to assign IRQs specifically. simple modprobe ne2000. Then the driver should be loaded, if that's the right module.

Next, try ifconfig eth0 up. If you see it after typing just ifconfig, you should be good at this point.

Now to assign an ip.. Slackware uses dhcpcd. So, as root:
dhcpcd eth0

If the module loaded correctly, and it's the right driver, then you should have net access.

If not, check the output of lspci for an entry for the net card, to see if it's even initialized.
Do any lights on the card come on when you plug it in, or plug in a net card?

--Shade

Thanks for the helpful suggestions- When booting with nic in the card slot, i get the following echoed to the screen as it pertains to PCMCIA & hotplug:

Starting PCMCIA services:
<Probing for PCIC: edit /etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia>
cardmgr[70]: watching 2 sockets
/etc/rc.d/rc.M: line 78: /sbin/dhcpd: /sbin/dhcpd: No such file or directory
Activating hardware detection: /etc/rc.d/rc.hotplug start
** can't synthesize pci hotplug evnts


modprobe ne2000 = can't locate the module
ifconfig eth0 up = no response (which im assuming to be good, or at least not particularly bad)
dhcpcd eth0 = -bash: dhcpd: command not found

lspci -v = pcilib: Cannot open /proc/bus/pci \ lspci: Cannot find any working access method.

I have a link light, not so for the activity light -- thanks.
Thanks,

You seem to be running a crippled install, missing a few very useful things. dhcpcd is your ticket to getting your card a dynamic IP. You also appear to be missing something critical with hotplug, but that might tie in the with the error you're getting from lspci.

You might want to try a fresh install with most things but games, X, etc.
I think you cut it down a bit too thin.

You might also want to post up the output of lsmod, first -- to see if anything got loaded at all for your card.
We can try to assign you a static IP address to see if it'll work at all at this stage.
At least grab the dhcpcd package from the CD.

--Shade

Yes crippled is right. Because the laptop (a Libretto 70ct) had no straightforward path (no floppy, cd-rom or nic) to install slackware direclty... I was forced to remove its tiny 1.6GB drive and perform the initial installation on a different laptop (a Portege 7020ct). Do you have any input on what might be a middle of the road installation between not enough to really get out of the gates and the FULL INSTALL? I know there isn't enough drive space to handle the full install, but I am definitely ready to toe the line of functionality / Thanks.